Yearly Goal met, and re-set

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Yea I dont have a "press on regardless" type goal as say an Iron Butt contestant would. If conditions are not favorable I don't ride. For example looking at my log in January I missed 13 days. I rode the first 7 days. On the 8th it rained and I didnt ride. I rode on the 9th. On the 10 th it snowed and I missed 4 days. Rode on the 14 th. Rained the 15 th didnt ride. Rode 16-19 th. On 20 th, 22 and 23 rd it snowed and I missed 7 days in a row. Got back on the road on the 27 th and rode the rest of the month.

In Feb I missed 9 days in a row to snow from 9 th to 17 th, but only missed 2 other days that month.

At 66 I still love riding, but not going to take any extraordinary chances because frankly I don't want to get hurt. It would suck big time at my age.
Getting in an hours ride a day when conditions are tolerable is a good goal for a retired guy. Gives me something to look forward to and something to make me want to get out of bed in the morning.

Riding around a race track at speed has it's own dangers even under limited risk conditions. It's not like no one evr gets hurt on a race track, other wise there would be no use for medical personell or ambulances that are omnipresent in those venues. I raced motocross for 10 years, much lower speeds than on a road race course, everyone going same direction, marshals in corners to warn of dangers, yet we still made use of the ambulance upon occassion. I imagine trying to drop your best personal lap time by a second would be an equivalent danger to daily riding, where you push yourself to do a little more than you normally would, even though it ups the risk factor a bit.

We all need some carrots dangled in front of us at times, to make life interesting.

All very true. I never look at lap times, I used to a little and then realized I wasn't having fun.

That motocross to me is more dangerous and demanding than anything. I had a 1986 CR250R, never raced but rode desert a lot on that bike, it was a wild machine. I got a nice helicopter ride one time, got lucky and managed to recover from those injuries for the most part. All that pounding and banging and abuse to the body, they say motocross racing is the most physically demanding sport in the world and I believe it. Rick Johnson and Bob Hannah were some pretty good racers.

I really did used to try that Iron Butt stuff and did a Saddlesore ride once. Afterwards I was cured of any notions that long distance riding was a good idea. Fatigue, being in a hurry, speeding, not a good mix. I rode 1100 miles in 21 hours, it was just stupid. 2-300 miles in a day is a good number as long as there is a good amount of twists.

We're young, we push ourselves. Now, I just try to enjoy. You are doing more miles/year than I do even though I get far more riding weather. If you like to ride and you can fit it in (between going after rodents with a bow and arrow lol) that's definitely living the dream.